Test Your Legal Insight

How many of these questions can you answer? Careful - sometimes theconventional wisdom isn’t so wise. The answers are below.

Also, remember that the information contained in thisarticle is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, butshould not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. State laws maydiffer; check with your statelabor department.

Employers often move employees from hourly to salary, in hopes of avoiding overtime-pay requirements. This sometimes gets them introuble. There’s nothing in the law that says that because an employeereceives a salary, that employee is automatically exempt from the overtimerules. It depends on other factors. For more information, try the DOL.

Generally, an employer can ask about a candidate’s drinking habits, solong as the questions aren’t likely to elicit information aboutalcoholism. For more information, try “InterviewQuestions: Legal or Illegal.”

This isn’t expressly prohibited under the law, but itmay not be such a great idea. You may want to ask, "Did you graduate from high school?" instead, although even that may notbe such a swell idea. For more information, try “InterviewQuestions: Legal or Illegal.”

According to Matt Miklave and Jon Trafimow of Epstein, Becker & Green,I-9 forms should generally be held for three years after hiring or one yearafter the date of termination, whichever is later. So if you terminate anemployee one year after hiring him, you keep his I-9 for two more years.

Not if your employee is driving in Brooklyn, Ohio, which is one of several places that ban phones (unless headsets are used) whiledriving. The states of Florida, Massachusetts, and California have minorrestrictions on cell-phone usage as well. TheNational Council of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C. has moreinformation.

Theinformation contained in this article is intended to provide useful informationon the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legalopinion. State laws may differ; check with your statelabor department.